Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla
}} |rating =Not Rated |budget = |gross = |runtime =108 minutes 106 minutes |designs =MogeGoji, ShodaiRitoruGoji, HeiseiMoge, ShodaiSupesuGoji }} Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (ゴジラVSスペースゴジラ , Gojira vs. SupēsuGojira) is a 1994 produced by Toho Company Ltd., released in December 10th, 1994, and the twenty first installment in the Godzilla series. It was produced by Shogo Tomiyama and directed by Kensho Yamashita, with a musical score by Takayuki Hattori and a screenplay by Hiroshi Kashiwabara, with special effects handled by Kohichi Kawakita. The film was released to Japanese theaters on December 10, 1994. Plot In 1995, one year after the defeat of Super MechaGodzilla at the hands of Godzilla, the U.N.G.C.C. (United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center) have devised two alternate plans that they hope will finally resolve the Godzilla problem. The first plan, dubbed Project M, M standing for M.O.G.U.E.R.A, involves the rebuilding of MechaGodzilla's wreckage into a new Anti-Godzilla mech: M.O.G.U.E.R.A. (Mobile Opporations Godzilla Universal Expert Robot Aero-type). This new machine, considered "the ultimate counter-Godzilla weapon", contains a powerful plasma laser cannon, similar to MechaGodzilla's, spiral missiles, advanced space-travel capabilities, and the ability to split in half to form two different vehicles: Land Moguera, a burrowing tank, and the Star Falcon, a flying airship similar to the Garuda, a previous U.N.G.C.C. mech. The second plan is dubbed Project: Telepathy (Project T), and involves the placement of a telepathic amplifier on the back of Godzilla's head that, it is hoped, can be used to quite literally control the beast and keep it away from Japan. Twenty-three year old psychic Miki Saegusa, a veteran Godzilla-fighter, is asked by Dr. Susumu Okubo, a biologist, and Dr. Chinatsu Gondo, sister of Lt. Goro Gondo who was killed by Godzilla in 1989 to join the project due to her advanced telekinetic abilities. Miki, however, is opposed to the project as she believes it to be not only immoral, but impossible to pull off. Nevertheless, the Counter-G Bureau prepares for the eventuality of her agreement and sends a team of two G-Force soldiers, Koji Shinjo and Kiyoshi Sato, to Birth Island, a small, tropical paradise in the South Pacific that is often visited by the Monster King himself. While not an official "home" to Godzilla, the island is home to another creature: Little Godzilla, who has grown to 30 meters in height and begun to develop very Godzilla-like characteristics. When Koji and Kiyo arrive on the Island, they are greeted by another soldier: Major Akira Yuki. However, Yuki does not have any intention of helping to control Godzilla, and plans to kill the beast instead. In 1989, his best friend Goro Gondo (Chinatsu Gondo's brother) was killed by Godzilla, and ever since, he has fought to kill the monster once and for all. He recruits the two G-Force soldiers to help bury tear gas mines along the coast in preparation for the creature's eventual return. He reveals to the men that he has devised a weapon that should, in theory, finally destroy the monster for good. He shows them a special hand-made bullet that contains a deadly blood coagulator. Yuki claims that Godzilla has a weak-zone on his body (his arm pit to be exact) that can be breached by his bullet. He hopes that the coagulant, once in Godzilla's body, will poison and kill the creature. Meanwhile, far out in the deep reaches of space, the guardian monster Mothra continues her mission to stop an approaching comet from impacting the Earth and destroying the human race. However, something of more immediate danger to the planet had come to her attention. In response, the giant insect begins to release countless smaller Fairy Mothras in her wake as she flies. One such Fairy Mothra travels to Earth and comes upon Miki, who is still considering her options about joining Project T. Before her eyes, the small moth transforms into an image of the Cosmos. The two twin girls then submit a grave warning to Miki: there is a creature, a space monster, on its way to Earth. Its objectives: destroy Godzilla and conquer the planet for its own. The Cosmos warn Miki that if Godzilla is killed, the Earth will have no defense an be easily overtaken. They beg Miki to do her best to protect Godzilla and her planet, and then disappear. The young woman now realizes that joining the Project T will give her the opportunity to help Godzilla and accepts the post of chief psychic on the scientific team. Meanwhile, a meeting is held at G-Center between Japan's Counter-G Bureau and representatives from NASA to discuss a strange occurrence that had happened to NASA's Interplanetary Research Vessel. The video file on-board showed that the craft had first suffered from an electrical disturbance, and then had its hull breached by strange, crystal-like projections. Unable to find an explanation to the strange happenings, NASA "could only speculate that it was some sort of... huge monster". In response, the U.N.G.C.C. votes to launch M.O.G.U.E.R.A. into space to intercept and attempt to destroy the creature, which, it is discovered, is approaching the Earth at great speed. At the same time, Miki, along with Dr. Okubo and Dr. Gondo arrive at Birth Island. There, they join up with Koji, Kiyo, and Yuki to test Project T on Godzilla, whom it is hoped will visit the island again. Some time after the team sets up camp, they hear several explosions coming from the beach, and they quickly mobilize. However, it proves to be a false alarm, as it was only Little Godzilla that had wandered on to the beach and accidentally set off the tear gas mines Yuki had buried earlier. Meanwhile, millions of miles from Earth, M.O.G.U.E.R.A. enters the asteroid belt as it moves to intercept the space monster. However, as it flies through the field of space rocks, it's scanners detect an object moving towards it at great speed. A few seconds later, a gigantic object comes into view. The huge, crystalline object flies straight for M.O.G.U.E.R.A. and attacks it, shooting energy pulses and even grazing the robot's body. Although the mech attempted to fight back, it could not stand against the incredible power of this creature, and was forced to retreat heavily damaged. Behind it, the space monster continues towards the Earth unimpeded. Back on Birth Island, as Yuki checks several of his traps, Godzilla finally rises from the sea, and begins to lumber onto the island. Koji and Kiyo quickly return to the base and receive their marching orders: they are to shoot the psychic amplifier onto the back of Godzilla's head via a high-powered rifle. As they head towards the beach, Yuki grabs his own rifle and loads it with his coagulant bullets, prepared to shoot and kill Godzilla. Both the G-Force soldiers and Yuki take their positions and wait for Godzilla to reach the beach. When he does, he stumbles on several of Yuki's tear gas mines. As he turns his head to avoid the gas, Koji takes his shot and successfully hits the titanic monster in the back of the head. Yuki then takes his shot, aiming for Godzilla's armpit, but misses. Kiyo radios back to Okubo and Gondo, who switch the Project T computers on and prepare to test it. Miki places a device on her head designed to amplify her T-wave, and she commands Godzilla to walk along the beach. Outside, Godzilla seems to comply, and begins to walk peacefully along the coast towards the cape. Eventually, however, Godzilla begins to regain control of his mind, and Okubo increases the power to a dangerous level, causing the computer to short circuit and Miki to pass out after a powerful electric shock. With that, control of Godzilla is terminated. Koji and Kiyo are called back to the tent, and Miki regains consciousness. However, when she awakens, she feels the space monster the Cosmos warned her of approaching, and approaching quickly. Outside the tent, Koji and Kiyo discuss assisting Yuki in shooting Godzilla, and quickly depart to find him. Nearby, Yuki is following Godzilla across the island, crawling through the brush in an attempt to find an opportunity to shoot him. Soon, the two G-Force soldiers, with Miki and Gondo hot on their heals, arrive and point their guns at Godzilla, prepared to fire. However, before any triggers can be pulled, the sky begins to darken and, from out of the clouds, a gigantic creature descends. It lands on Birth Islands, and as it does, meteors strike the ground and huge crystalline spires erupt from them. Miki, along with the others, are shocked to see that the space monster bears a striking resemblance to Godzilla himself! As the monster baths in the energy from the crystal structures, Little Godzilla creeps out from behind a rock. Curious, the infant monster lumbers forward to investigate the newcomer. Unfortunately, the space monster turns and violently attacks Little Godzilla, who attempts to flee. As the heartless creature assaults the young monster with a powerful Corona Beam, the adult Godzilla arrives and attacks his child's tormentor. However, Godzilla's beam is deflected back at him by an energy shield the space monster has projected around itself. Little Godzilla finally escapes, and runs to his father for protection. The humans watch in horror as the space monster, now airborne, relentlessly blasts Godzilla and his son with energy beams. Soon, Godzilla is brought down, and can only watch as Little Godzilla is lifted away by the space monster's telekinetic energy and imprisoned within a field of crystals. Incidentally, those crystals have given the space monster all the energy they can, and the creature retreats, leaving Little Godzilla trapped and Godzilla wounded. Unable to rescue his son, the King of the Monsters leaves the island to recuperate. Okubo declares Project T a failure, and the team prepares to evacuate Birth Island. However, Miki decides to stay behind, as she is worried about Godzilla and his son. As the chopper prepares to leave, Koji elects to stay behind with Miki, and both he and Kiyo hop off the chopper, which carries Yuki, Gondo, and Okubo back to the U.N.G.C.C. headquarters in Japan. There, M.O.G.U.E.R.A. has returned and is being repaired. The giant machine, while unable to defeat the space monster, did manage to retrieve cell samples from it. In a meeting with the Counter-G Bureau, Dr. Gondo presents her findings. She compares a sample of G-cells (Godzilla cells) with the space monster's cells, which are shown to be all but identical. Therefore, the scientists have dubbed the creature "SpaceGodzilla". The G-force scientists hypothesize that G-cells were taken into space as either a part of the monster Biollante (another Godzilla-clone who, after defeating Godzilla in 1989, broke down into tiny spores and flew into space) or as a piece of Godzilla's flesh attached to Mothra (who, after her bout with Godzilla in 1993, flew into space as well), and that those cells had been sucked into a black hole, where they absorbed cosmic rays from exploding stars. The mutated cells were then pushed out a theoretical "white hole", in the form of a living creature capable of living in space. Now, this SpaceGodzilla has landed on Earth, and in all probability will attack a major city soon enough. The G-Force lobby to revamp M.O.G.U.E.R.A. to fight SpaceGodzilla, and G-Force Commander Aso recruits Major Yuki to pilot the giant mech. Back on Birth, Miki is again visited by the Fairy Mothra, and the Cosmos encourage her to continue helping Godzilla, who may be the Earth's only hope against SpaceGodzilla. As the Fairy Mothra departs, Koji approaches. Both Miki and Koji are growing increasingly fond of one another, but each have a very different opinion of Godzilla and how he should be dealt with. While Miki respects Godzilla as a living animal with a right to live, Koji, as a soldier of G-Force, is sworn to fight the monster. A few hours later, as the three sleep, a group of men invade the camp, beat up the two soldiers, and kidnap Miki. The job is so expertly pulled off that it is almost certain that someone on the inside is behind it. Koji and Kiyo return to Japan, where they discover that Dr. Okubo has sold out. After deliberately sabotaging Project T, he made it seem to be a failure. He had captured Miki in order to use her to control Godzilla, making him a very powerful figure in the Japanese Mafia. In the Mafia hideout, Okubo records Miki's T-wave and shows off his machine to the other Mafia members by controlling to rise from the sea. Now able to control the King of the Monsters, there is no telling what the Mafia might do. However, after a few minutes, Godzilla once again begins to regain control, and Okubo quickly attempts to increase the power. Fortunately, at just the right moment, Yuki, Koji, and Kiyo, having located the hideout, break in and engage the Mafia members in a shootout. As the bullets fly, Koji locates Miki. However, a mafia member crawls behind the table Miki is strapped to and flips it over, using Miki and the table as a shield. Koji, in fear of hitting Miki, cannot shoot back. Miki, however, closes her eyes and uses her telekinetic powers to lift the table up off of the ground, allowing Koji to shoot the enemy easily. He then frees Miki and meets up with Kiyo and Yuki. Suddenly, Miki senses SpaceGodzilla approaching, and the team quickly leaves the area. Inside the hideout, Okubo is still laboring over the short circuiting T-Project computer. Outside, SpaceGodzilla flies through the sky, causing electrical disturbances along the way. The space monster flies over the hideout and destroys it, killing Okubo and destroying the T-Project equipment. SpaceGodzilla continues to fly over Japan, causing massive destruction in its wake. The interstellar demon eventually arrives in Fukuoka, where it lands. Gigantic crystal structures shoot forth from additional meteor impacts, destroying the buildings and empowering SpaceGodzilla. In no time, SpaceGodzilla has converted Fukuoka into a crystal fortress. Energy from space is channeled into Fukuoka Tower, which is then siphoned into the crystal objects, where the energy is converted into a form that SpaceGodzilla can absorb and gather strength from. Now empowered and stronger than before, SpaceGodzilla waits for its opponent to arrive. Sure enough, Godzilla appears off the coast of Japan, and destroys a J.S.D.F. blockade as it heads towards the coast. At U.N.G.C.C., Yuki, Koji, and Kiyo arrive and are briefed on their new mission: pilot M.O.G.U.E.R.A. and use the machine to its full potential to combat and destroy SpaceGodzilla. Miki and Gondo say goodbye to Koji and Yuki (respectively), and watch as M.O.G.U.E.R.A. blasts off to Fukuoka. As they fly, they receive word that Godzilla has hit the mainland and is wading through the cities of Japan in order to reach SpaceGodzilla. Yuki, still seeking revenge against Godzilla, reroutes M.O.G.U.E.R.A. and flies towards Godzilla instead, leaving Fukuoka defenseless. As Yuki fires on Godzilla, Koji, seeing no alternative, rises and knocks the Major out cold. He and Kiyo then take control of M.O.G.U.E.R.A. and turn it back towards Fukuoka. M.O.G.U.E.R.A. soon arrives at SpaceGodzilla's crystal fortress and begins to attack the monster from the air. The giant robot soon lands and unleashes its Spiral Grenade Missiles against SpaceGodzilla. The interstellar abomination, however, possesses a skeletal structure reinforced by diamond-hard crystal, and the missiles do little to injure him. M.O.G.U.E.R.A. then rolls forward and begins to attack SpaceGodzilla at close range with its drill nose. However, it is soon forced to retreat, and as it flees, SpaceGodzilla blasts it with its Corona Beam, taking the robot down. Inside, Yuki awakens to find his crew unconscious, the weapon systems offline, and SpaceGodzilla preparing to finish them off. He wakes his two co-pilots and they blast M.O.G.U.E.R.A. into the air and out of harm's way. As the crew fly around the battlefield conducting in-flight repairs to their mech, Godzilla finally arrives in Fukuoka and engages his cosmic clone in battle. As Godzilla wades through the sea of crystals, SpaceGodzilla continues to assault the Monster King with its Corona Beam, as well as blocking Godzilla's own atomic ray with its shield. As Godzilla grows closer, SpaceGodzilla finally brings the monster down with another shot from its beam. SpaceGodzilla then uses its telekinesis to lift Godzilla into the air, then ram him into a building. The space demon then telekinetically lifts itself and several of its crystals, which it fires like spears at Godzilla. After being hit by several of these projectiles, Godzilla uses his ray to shoot down the rest. Realizing that SpaceGodzilla will be impossible to defeat in close combat, Godzilla begins to turn his attention to destroying the matrix-like network of crystals in and around the city. On board M.O.G.U.E.R.A., Yuki, Koji, and Kiyo notice Godzilla's tactic. They notice that the only building left standing anywhere near SpaceGodzilla is the Fukuoka Tower, which stands in the middle of the crystal fortress. They know that the tower receives energy from space, and deduce that it is SpaceGodzilla's main energy source. Destroying it, then, will severely weaken the monster. Although the crew is initially a little adverse to fighting with Godzilla instead of against him, they eventually agree to help Godzilla destroy Fukuoka Tower. Yuki descends into the secondary cockpit of M.O.G.U.E.R.A., the cockpit of the machine's lower half, the Star Falcon. The giant machine splits in half and while Yuki pilots the Star Falcon, Koji and Kiyo transform and control M.O.G.U.E.R.A.'s upper half, Land Moguera. Land Moguera lands on the ground and begins to burrow beneath Fukuoka, heading for the tower. Above ground, Star Falcon assaults SpaceGodzilla from the sky, and Godzilla continues to destroy the crystal spires, growing closer to Fukuoka Tower. Godzilla attempts to hit the tower with his ray, but SpaceGodzilla projects his shield around the building, protecting it from harm. Underneath the structure, however, Land Moguera drills through the foundations and superstructure, thereby weakening it above. On the surface, Godzilla has finally reached the tower, and he begins to pummel and pound it mercilessly. Eventually, the giant tower is brought down, and SpaceGodzilla's main energy source is cut off. Land Moguera emerges and once again joins with its upper half, forming M.O.G.U.E.R.A. once more. Both M.O.G.U.E.R.A. and Godzilla begin to assault the weakened SpaceGodzilla, working in tangent to bring down the space monster. M.O.G.U.E.R.A. fires its Spiral Grenade Missiles at SpaceGodzilla's shoulder crystals, through which the monster absorbs its energy. The missiles destroy these crystals, weakening SpaceGodzilla even more. However, SpaceGodzilla retaliates and blasts off one of M.O.G.U.E.R.A.'s arms in revenge. The interstellar demon then drives its crystal-tipped tail into M.O.G.U.E.R.A.'s chest and hurls it away. The machine then crashes to the ground and is rendered inoperable. The crew prepare to bail out, and Koji and Kiyo enter the elevator that will bring them to M.O.G.U.E.R.A.'s escape pod. However, Yuki stays behind and launches the pod, taking Koji and Kiyo to safety. Yuki loads his rifle with his blood coagulator, and prepares to shoot and kill Godzilla. Meanwhile, on the battle field, Godzilla begins to gain the upper hand. After biting SpaceGodzilla in order to sap his energy, the Monster King begins to release energy from his body. SpaceGodzilla, desperately trying to siphon energy from the remaining crystals, begins to absorb Godzilla's energy, further weakening him. Some distance away, Koji and Kiyo emerge from their escape pod. The reach the city limits, where they find Miki and Gondo waiting. They turn to see the battle still commencing in the leveled city. Inside M.O.G.U.E.R.A., Yuki attempts to find an opportunity to shoot Godzilla. In mad frustration, he accidentally activates M.O.G.U.E.R.A.'s rockets, and the giant machine barrels through the air and crashes head on into SpaceGodzilla. Although SpaceGodzilla recovers, M.O.G.U.E.R.A. is in ruins, and Koji quickly heads off into the battlefield towards the wreckage to attempt to find Yuki. He finds the Major alive, but hanging upside down, his leg stuck in a malfunctioning escape hatch on M.O.G.U.E.R.A. Yuki tells Koji that he has realized Godzilla's tactic: when SpaceGodzilla absorbs too much of Godzilla's unleashed energy, the space monster will quite literally explode! Back outside the city, Kiyo also realizes what is about to happen, and quickly moves to safety. Miki, however, stands before the leveled city, closes her eyes, and begins to communicate telepathically with Koji. Through him, she uses her psychic powers to free Yuki from the malfunctioning hatch, but just as she does, SpaceGodzilla begins to undergo a catastrophic demise. Godzilla summons forth the life force of Rodan and uses his Spiral Heat Ray to bring SpaceGodzilla down. The King of the Monsters fires the powerful red ray 4 times, and SpaceGodzilla is engulfed in a massive explosion. The massive blast destroys what is left of Fukuoka, as well as M.O.G.U.E.R.A. When the flames clear, the essence of the space monster escapes its burning body and rises into space. At long last, SpaceGodzilla has been defeated. Godzilla, victorious, roars in triumph. In the burning rubble of Fukuoka, Kiyo, Gondo, and Miki search for Koji and Yuki. As they begin to despair, the two soldiers finally emerge from the dust and rubble, none the worse for their ordeal. Although Yuki is limping, he has survived the blast thanks to Koji and Miki. The small group turn and watch as Godzilla departs the burning city. Yuki has finally come to respect Godzilla, as the monster had, after all, saved the human race. However, Gondo reminds them all that G-cells are still floating out in space, and it is quite possible that another SpaceGodzilla might appear someday. As the group head away from the city, Miki uses her telekinesis to remove the Project T amplifier from Godzilla's head, prompting the giant monster to turn and face her, as if thanking her. The Cosmos appear before Miki one final time, and thank her for saving the Earth. The Fairy Mothra then returns to outer space. The group rests on the beach and watch Godzilla wade into the ocean, heading back to Birth Island. As Yuki and Gondo sit together, Miki and Koji walk together along the beach. She uses her powers to allow both her and Koji to see Little Godzilla, now once again free on Birth Island, attempt to fire a weak atomic ray. The two laugh, and clasp hands as they watch Godzilla returning to Birth Island, where he'll live in peace and tranquility with his beloved son. Gallery Soundtrack Box Office The film sold approximately 3,200,000 tickets in Japan. Reception Critical reaction to Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla has been mixed. Toho Kingdom said the film is "far from terrible" and "an underrated movie" but felt it suffered from an "overly complicated story," "underdeveloped characters," and "forgettable" music. Monster Zero called the film "a curiously uninvolving effort" that "disappoints in nearly all aspects of the production". American Kaiju criticized the "wildly uneven pacing," "uneven special effects," and "exceedingly lumpy story," but added that "most of the special effects are pretty fair" and "the monster battles are mostly fun." DVD Cult said, "It does have some great destruction scenes and monster battles; two things that make these films worthwhile to begin with. The monster SpaceGodzilla is excellently designed, and is certainly far more menacing than anything Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich ever dreamed up." Home Video Releases Columbia/TriStar (Sony) - DVD *'Released': February 1, 2000 *'Aspect Ratio': Widescreen (1.85:1) letterbox *'Audio': English (2.0) *Region 1 *'Note': A double feature disc with Godzilla vs Destoroyah Sony - Blu Ray *'Released': May 6th, 2014 *'Aspest Ratio': Widescreen (1.85:1) 1080p *'Audio': Japanese and English (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1) *'Subtitles': English, English SDH, French *'Extras': **Teaser Trailer 1 (HD, Japanese DD 2.0, English Subtitles, 0:32) **Teaser Trailer 2 (HD, Japanese DD 2.0, English Subtitles, 0:32) **Theatrical Trailer (HD, Japanese DD 2.0, English Subtitles, 1:36) *Region 1 *'Note': This is a 2-Disc double feature set with Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla 2 Videos ゴジラvsスペースゴジラ 劇場予告|Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla Trailers Trivia *In this film the Cosmos state "if Godzilla is killed, earth will have no defense". This might mean Mothra felt earth was safe assuming if any new monsters appeared while she was in space, Godzilla would "defend" earth against them. *It is possible SpaceGodzilla and Mothra may have met somewhere in space. This is possible due to the fact Mothra seems to be fully aware of SpaceGodzilla and its intention to kill Godzilla. *This movie is Godzilla's 40th anniversary where instead of fighting his mechanical double, Godzilla fights his cosmic double. *All of the monsters featured in this film (with the exception of Mothra) have a close relationship to the monster Godzilla himself; Little Godzilla is the same species as Godzilla; SpaceGodzilla is not only a genetic clone of Godzilla, but is likely to have been created by the Biollante, another Godzilla clone; M.O.G.U.E.R.A. is rebuilt from the wreckage of MechaGodzilla. *A SpaceGodzilla film was announced in the 1970's by Tomoyuki Tanaka, as he continued to search for a new project to revive Godzilla after Terror of MechaGodzilla's poor performance in 1975. The film, though, never got past the proposal stage, but in 1994, the unused monster SpaceGodzilla was "revived" to be used as the main antagonist for this film. *The monster M.O.G.U.E.R.A. had previously appeared in the 1957 sci-fi classic The Mysterians. There, Moguera was depicted as a "species" of giant robots deployed by the aliens to assist in their conquest of Earth. Although The Mysterians was not part of the Godzilla series, the idea to revive Moguera gained a lot of publicity among fan communities, and boosted interest in the film. *Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla is one of the only Godzilla films that contains nudity (the scene where the camera pans up Yuki's naked back as he showers on Birth Island). *The Godzilla suit used predominantly in this film has been nicknamed "MogeGoji". *The "RadoGoji" suit, used the previous year for Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2, is used in this film for the water scenes, such as when Godzilla rises and lumbers onto Birth Island as both Yuki and the G-Force soldiers attempt to shoot him. However, as the suit was not built originally for use in the "big pool", the water proved to be quite detrimental to the rubber and caused it to deteriorate rather rapidly. If one watches the film carefully, one will see that the "RadoGoji"'s long tail is split toward the end and appears to be hanging on by a thread. In fact, in a scene that was cut from the final product, when the wires that controlled Godzilla's tail lifted the tail up, the tip of the tail completely snapped of. *Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla harks back to the Godzilla films of the 1960's (in particular the films directed by Jun Fukuda, such as Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, Son of Godzilla, and Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla), and bears many similarities to several concepts used those films, including South Pacific islands populated by kaiju, space monsters, a young Godzilla geared toward children viewers, and a Godzilla who fills a semi-hero persona. Takayuki Hattori's contemporary musical score for the film is also very reminiscent of Masaru Sato's work in Fukuda's films. *It was the idea of special effects director Kohichi Kawakita to redesign the Baby Godzilla as the rather Minilla-ish Little Godzilla for this film. According to one source, Kawakita disliked the dinosaurian features of Baby and revamped him for this reason. *The original story for Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla called for the inclusion of a second MechaGodzilla, who would have fought along side Godzilla in the battle against SpaceGodzilla. However, this concept was dropped and M.O.G.U.E.R.A. was incorporated into the story. This not only brought in a new face to the Heisei series and gave Toho a chance to revamp one of its original monsters for a new generation, but also gave special effects director Koichi Kawakita the chance to indulge in his passion for mecha monsters. After all, his work on 1989's Gunhed, which involved a great number of robots and giant machines, was what got him the job as special effects director for the Godzilla series in the first place. *Several scenes shot for the film were ultimately left on the cutting room floor. In one, Godzilla, after loosing to SpaceGodzilla on Birth Island, lumbers over to the crystal prison that holds Little Godzilla and attempts to free him. Unable to rescue his son, he ultimately abandons the attempted rescue and departs the island in pursuit of SpaceGodzilla. Another scene that never made it to the final film depicted the Star Falcon (M.O.G.U.E.R.A.'s lower half) in orbit around Earth in a test flight. Yet another unused scene was shot for the end of the film, when Godzilla departs Fukuoka after SpaceGodzilla's defeat. In the original sequence, Godzilla pauses for a moment as he leaves the city, and then continues on his way. While not a huge change, it would have been a small glimpse into what the monster might have been thinking or how he perceived the battle that had just taken place. Whatever its true purpose, the scene, along with those previously mentioned, was cut in order to maintain a shorter running time for the movie. *In another, and rather unfortunate, similarity to Godzilla's earlier Showa adventures, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla utilizes the use of stock footage. Such recycled footage was used for Godzilla's battle with the Japanese Navy as it approaches the country in search of SpaceGodzilla. Although footage was shot for the sequence, special effects director Koichi Kawakita rejected it on the grounds that it was not realistic enough. Under pressure to finish the film on schedule, Kawakita was forced to splice in the footage of Godzilla's battle with the Navy from the film Godzilla vs. Biollante. The close-up scene of Godzilla roaring and firing his beam was culled from Godzilla vs. Mothra. *A possible hint at Godzilla's new form in the following film is seen when Godzilla prepares to fire his spiral ray and red radioactive patches appear similar to where the orange patches would be on Godzilla in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Poll Do you like Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla? Yes! No. Kind of. de:Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla Category:Films Category:Heisei Series Category:Kaiju Films Category:1990's Films Category:Japanese films Category:Godzilla Movies With Different Directors Category:Godzilla Films